The Powerball winning numbers for the $564 million jackpot were drawn late Wednesday night, prompting anxious ticket holders to ask, “Did anyone win Powerball?” Check your tickets now — you may have one of the three winning tickets sold for the February 11 drawing.
The Multi-State Lottery Association has confirmed that three tickets were sold in North Carolina, Puerto Rico or Texas matched all five numbers and the Powerball —11, 13, 25, 39, 54 and PB 19. The winners will split the massive $564.1 million jackpot, making them instant multi-millionaires.
Retweet if you didn’t win the Powerball jackpot last night. Numbers: 25, 11, 54, 13 and 39, with a Powerball of 19 pic.twitter.com/bU0gFzBMSU
— Good Morning America (@GMA) February 12, 2015
The New York Daily News reports that this is the first time a winning Powerball ticket has been sold outside the continental United States. Puerto Rico is a newcomer to the Powerball lottery, joining four months ago in October 2014.
According to a previous report from the Inquisitr , the winners will have the option to take their share of the full Powerball jackpot amount paid out over 29 years (30 payments), or a lump sum payment of approximately one-third each of $381,138,450.16. That’s before taxes, of course.
The three-way split of the lump sum is $127,046,150 per person, before Uncle Sam takes his share, if the winners decide to just take it all instead of waiting for annual payouts of approximately $4.2 million per year before taxes.
Officials have not announced exactly where the winning tickets were sold in North Carolina, Puerto Rico and Texas, but that information is expected to be released soon. If you are holding one of the winning tickets, Janet Stanzak, president of Financial Empowerment in Minneapolis suggests that the three lucky winners contact an attorney and a financial planner before they rush over to lottery headquarters to cash in.
For those who didn’t win the $564 million Powerball jackpot on Wednesday night, there’s still hope. Double check your tickets because there was one $2 million winner in Pennsylvania who matched five numbers and paid the extra buck for Powerplay. There were also tickets sold in 17 states that are worth $1 million each — these ticket holders matched all five numbers but didn’t pay for the Powerplay option that would have doubled their prize.
Wednesday night’s jackpot was the third-largest in the history of Powerball. The jackpot is now back down to $40 million and the next drawing will be on Valentine’s Day, February 14. If you don’t have enough money for Valentine’s flowers or a big dinner out, perhaps a lottery ticket will do — especially if it turns out to be a winner.
[Image: Scott Olson/Getty Images]